Entry 9, End (Look Before You Seer)
Dear Prince Solaris,
It's hard to believe that two ponies who seem to have so little in common could ever get along. But I found out that if you embrace each other's differences, you just might be surprised to discover a way to be friends after all.
Always Your Faithful Student,
-Dusk ShineP.S. It turns out that the Magic of Male Bonding is just as elusive and mysterious to me as the Magic of Friendship. I’ll be sure to keep it in mind as I continue my educational research here in Ponyville.
Knock knock knock
“Huh?” Dusk’s head rose quickly from out of his friendship letter’s rough draft. “Who could that be? It’s the middle of the night!”
Stepping away from his desk, the studious stallion made his way towards the stairwell.
“I’m going to get the door,” he called back to his friends before descending to the first floor.
Knock knock knock
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” he then yelled from halfway across the foyer. “Goodness, you’d think the world was ending or something… Again.”
Clip clop clip clop
Twinkle twinkle twinkle
With a flare of magic from his horn, Dusk Shine opened the door…
… and gasped.
“Rainbow Dash?” he asked with stunned surprise. “And you’re using the front door for once? What’s the occasion?”
“Yeah nice to see you too, jerk,” Rainbow Dash smiled in turn, returning the playful jab with one of his own. “Didn’t want to interrupt whatever you, Elusive, and Applejack were doing, but I’ve got a couple of things I need to ask you.”
“Elusive and Applejack?” Dusk blinked back in confusion. “How did you know that they’re her-” he started to ask, but then the answer became clear. “Oh, you must have spotted them coming in while you were setting up the storm. Those eyes of yours are crazy impressive, Dash.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere, dude,” giggled the girly stallion. “How are they treating each other, by the way? Like oil and water, or is it more like cats and dogs?”
“It’s…”
“Hey hayseed, everythin’ okay down there?”
“We were hoping to move on to the next activity alread- Oh. Hello, Rainbow Dash. Still enjoying my lovely bows, I see.”
Turning his gaze away from Dusk, Rainbow looked beyond the bookworm... and saw a sight that made his jaw drop.
From the stairwell, Applejack and Elusive stood shoulder to shoulder; one of them sporting a black eye, and the other a missing tooth. Both had ruffled coats, covered in bruises, and both...
… were smiling quite goofily.
Rainbow Dash found this detail to be the most disturbing of all.
“What brings ya around these here parts?” Applejack asked conversationally. “Lookin’ for a seamster to touch up one of yer dresses? Heh.”
“Oh behave, Applejack,” Elu laughed cheekily. “We all know how much you adore Rainbow’s little outfits.”
Whomp!
Elusive received a hoof to the face for his remark, the blow managing to dislodge another tooth from his already swollen mouth.
… Crack!
Taking it in stride, the fashion pony headbutted AJ in retaliation.
The room grew quiet for a moment after this exchange… but the silence didn’t last long. Soon the two stallions were laughing heartily with one another like the good friends that they were.
From the entrance, Rainbow Dash could only stare awestruck.
“More like cats and dogs, I’d say,” Dusk answered RD’s question nonchalantly, paying the odd happenstance no mind. “Believe it or not this is a remarkable improvement from how they were behaving earlier.”
“I-is it now?” Rainbow shook his head in disbelieve. “Huh...”
“Rainbow, dear, I believe Applejack asked you a question,” a greatly injured Elu interjected. “What drew you here today?”
Though slightly off-put by the unicorn's bloody mouth, Dash quickly recovered enough to provide an answer.
“I was doing a final fly-by of the area when I noticed that the tree next to the library was completely gone!” the pegasus explained quickly, using his hoof to point out a window for illustration. “Does anypony know what happened to it? The weather team has to write up a report on any damage one of their storms causes.”
Once the question was finally asked, Elusive and Applejack glanced at each other…
… before proceeding to laugh even harder.
“... I feel like I got left out of something,” Rainbow Dash grumbled heatedly. Rising into the air, the ponytailed pony raised his voice as he took on a more authoritative tone. “Okay, spill it! What the hay happened?!”
“Applejack tried to drop a tree on me,” Elu revealed drolly.
“Only because you tried to smother me with a pillow!” AJ fired back.
“I wouldn’t have resorted to that if you had stayed down when I zapped you.”
“Oh like yer little mosquito kisses could hurt me!”
“Don’t pretend like you weren’t wailing like a little foal!”
“Was not!”
“Were too!”
“Ah’ll show you wailing you no good son of a-”
“Applejack accidentally lassoed the tree and dragged it inside,” Dusk explained the situation fully for Rainbow. “It broke a window and made a mess of the top floor, but he worked with Elusive to set things right.”
“I… see,” Dash replied steadily, his sight now split between his calm friend and his two bickering ones.
“... I don’t think I quite understand guys nights yet, Rainbow Dash,” the purple unicorn disclosed quietly with his dear pegasus friend. “I think their fighting is supposed to be... good? They seem to be getting along better than they did before, at least.”
“This is definitely the closest I’ve ever seen those two be, I’ll give you that,” Rainbow deadpanned, referring more to the pair’s hooficuffs than anything metaphorical.
“I’m glad you see it too,” Dusk failed to catch the double meaning “Still, I learned a lot about friendship today, and I even managed to get a friendship letter out of it! Now all I have to do is remember to have Barb send it once she gets back and…”
“...”
“...”
Dusk abruptly grew quiet, becoming deep in thought.
With AJ and Elu preoccupied with trying to knock each other out, and with his target becoming introspective, Rainbow Dash saw this as the perfect opportunity to strike.
“About Barb,” is how he started, though he was still unsure how to properly word his inquiry. “She’s… um… Well why is she… er… I… I-I want to ask…”
… but, despite his best efforts, RD’s words refused to form.
His mental fretting had turned the hornet’s nest into something too large, and too intimidating, for him to kick.
“She’s in Canterlot,” Dusk surprised Dash by being the first to speak. “Away on Royal Business. I think she was going to stay the night at my big sister's place too if I'm remembering correctly.”
“You have a sister?”
“At first I was worried about having her go by herself,” the unicorn kept going, leaving Rainbow’s question unanswered; conversing more with himself than his audience. “She’s still just a baby dragon, after all…”
"..."
Rainbow Dash landed softly upon the floor, and waited patiently for his friend’s next few words.
“... But she’s also been… better at social stuff than me,” Dusk Shine finally admitted, his feelings becoming clear to both himself and the other gathered stallions. “Honestly she does way better on her own than I do somedays. I know she’s probably fine, and that it’s silly of me to worry… but… w-well…”
“You still do,” Applejack stepped in, having put his bought with Elusive aside to be supportive. “Shoot, ah felt the same darn way the first time ah had to drop Apple Buck off for kindergarten, hayseed!”
“And I had similar reservations when it was Sweepy’s turn to experience his first taste of independence,” Elu chimed in as well, joining what had now become an impromptu support group. “With my parents having already gone through the same ordeal back when I was a foal, it fell to me to be the designated worry-wort.”
“R… R-really?” Dusk asked quietly, turning now towards the two beat-up ponies. “So I’m not being weird by worrying?”
“Oh you definitely are, buddy,” AJ chortled loudly. “Pretty sure that little dragon of yer’s has been takin' care of herself well enough without any hiccups, so why would this be any different?”
“I concur,” Elu concurred. “Barbara is… special… and far more dependable than I think you’re giving her credit for. I implore you to have a little faith in her, good sir.”
“... You guys… Heh… Thank you,” the worried unicorn smiled genuinely, his heart feeling noticeably lighter than it had before. “And thank you for going along with this silly sleepover plan of mine. It was a great distraction from… Well, you know.”
“Anytime, partner,” Applejack slapped Dusk’s back with a hoof, much to the latter’s discomfort. “This was actually pretty fun! We should do this again someday.”
“If we do, please allow moi to supply the games,” Elusive suggested eagerly. “I know one in particular that relies less on numbers, and more on a sense of humor, called Appl-... On second thought, it would probably be for the best if I kept the name under wraps for now, hohoho.”
“Sounds good to me,” the sole earth pony present stomped a hoof in celebration. “You bring the fun, and ah’ll bring the cider!”
“Cider?!” Rainbow Dash shouted a little louder than necessary, accidentally reinserting himself back into the conversation. “I-I mean… ahem… If you guys serve cider at these things then I might be down for joining the next one.”
“Did you want to join this one?” innocently offered Dusk Shine. “I think we all have a little energy left in us before our beds start calling our names.”
“... Um… Well you see…”
“...”
“...”
… Rainbow Dash wanted to say yes.
Rainbow Dash wanted to join his friends in what appeared to be a good time...
… but something inside him screamed ‘no’.
Red Gala’s honest words, and Barbara’s distasteful situation, still weighed heavily on his mind.
“... Ummmm...”
Dusk was still Rainbow's friend, and Dusk cared for the little dragoness, but there were too many unknowns for the pretty pegasus' liking.
He wanted things to be simplified.
He wanted his questions to be answered...
… When he looked into Dusk’s hopeful eyes, however…
“...”
“...”
“... Nah,” was Rainbow Dash’s eventual reply. “I, um, s-still got a lot of work to do tonight.”
“Now isn’t the right time,” the speedster thought to himself. “Not while he’s doing his friendship learning thing…
“... Will there ever be a good time though...?
“... Gotta watch the storm and make sure it doesn’t cause any more damage,” RD finished elaborating his excuse, hoping that it was believable. “Swinging by was more of a lunch break thing.”
“I thought you said you stopped by because of the missing tree?” Dusk pointed out the accidental contradiction in Dash’s testimony, making the pegasus freeze up. “Now that I think about it, considering the forecast, shouldn’t you be on the west side of Ponyville right now? You know... where the eye of the storm should be forming approximately five minutes from now?”
Rainbow gulped.
“Don’t those require senior weather staff, such as yourself, to monitor closely...?”
Rainbow sweated.
“... You’re cutting it pretty close to that deadline, Dash,” Dusk continued to grill the stallion, though he wasn’t doing so out of malice. He was just genuinely curious. “You must have planned out this ‘lunch break’ of yours around it pretty tightly…
“... Hey, wait… Didn’t you say that you had a couple of questions for me; as in, more than one?”
“...”
“...”
“... Well I better get flying!” Rainbow bluntly shouted, turning to leave. “My lunch break is almost up.”
“Rainbow Dash?”
“See you later, Dusk,” RD turned his head briefly to relay. “You enjoy the rest of your guys night, okay?”
“Bu-”
Woosh~
Without another word, Rainbow extended his wings fully and launched his body up into the stormy night’s sky. Golden Oaks soon disappeared beneath the cloud cover as he rocketed towards his next destination.
Guilt would remain his ever-vigilant copilot for the rest of the wet, and miserable, evening.
~At the Same Time, Underneath the Same Sky~
“... Excuse me, ma’am?”
At the sudden sound of my voice, the light orange unicorn I had just approached jerks her head out from her book, and blinks blankly into space. A strand of her somewhat messy, vermillion-hued mane falls flatly against her face as she rapidly shifts her gaze around in an attempt to figure out who was talking to her.
“Sorry,” I apologize profusely for interrupting the mare’s reading time. “Didn’t mean to scare you. I was just wondering if you could help me find somepony? The head librarian told me that you and one other were the only ponies still left here tonight…”
At last figuring out where I am based on the direction of my voice, the sitting pony aims her sight downwards towards the floor.
“Oh… Oh wow,” she mumbles in awe, shocked by my appearance. A white-tinted hoof peeks itself out from underneath her blue, star-adorned cape as she uses it to adjust her glasses. “A baby dragon? Goodness! Never imagined I'd bump into one in a place like this… O-oh, you just asked me a question, didn't you? S-sorry about that. What can I help you with, little one?”
“I’m looking for a unicorn stallion with a light, yellowish-grey coat,” I describe my target quickly, for time was of the essence. “He’s got a two-toned mane, sorta red and purple, and his cutie mark is of a crescent moon with a few stars around it… Have you seen anypony like that today?”
The mare pauses for a moment as she searches her memory.
“Hmmm… Why, yes, actually,” she provides me with good news. “Recently too. I think he might still be over by the speculative magic section on the third floor.”
“Really?!” my voice rises for a sec before I remember that I’m in a library. “Thank you so much, Miss…” I fish for a name.
“Sunshine.”
“Thank you, Miss Sunshine!” I thank the helpful pony properly. Before I start to make my way over to the mentioned section, I add a friendly, “I like your cape, by the way!” to my quick goodbye.
“O-oh, why thank you as well! I based it off of Starswirl the Longmaned’s original design aannnnd you’re gone.”
A bit rude of me to ask and dash like that, I know, but like I said earlier time is of the essence. Since I'll be leaving Canterlot first thing in the morning, this is going to be my only chance to make good on my promise to Dusk. I’m not going to be able to catch another train until the day after tomorrow so this, right here, is my best shot for delivering his letter to-
Ah.
And there he is:
Moonhoofer.
The dude appears to have gone through a bit of a, shall we say, facelift since last I saw him. Where before he looked exactly like Dusk, now it seems he’s found a style all his own.
Said style consists of a sweater shirt to hide his unkempt coat, a braid to manage his uncut mane, and a line of tape to mend his broken, unsalvageable glasses…
… In short, he looks like a wreck.
Considering the upset state I left him in I’m not surprised.
As you may or may not recall, the last time I saw this stallion was around when I returned to Canterlot after Nightterror Nebula’s defeat. We bumped into each other at Pony Mary Joe’s, and it was there where I broke the news of Dusk’s reassignment to Ponyville. Moony didn’t take it well, which was understandable considering that my charge had unintentionally ditched his party in favor of saving the world. The poor unicorn stormed off with tears in his eyes, and if it weren’t for the untimely arrival of a scroll I might have chased after him.
Since it did arrive, however, I guess I'll never know whether I would have or not. It's not like I'm all that close with the pony; more acquaintance than a friend, sadly.
Well, either way, I'm still glad I found him. “Moonhoofer!” I call out as loudly as is appropriate for a library; i.e., barely above a whisper. “Hey, Moonhoofer!”
The stallion's eyes remain glued to his book, the one titled ‘The Fisher Kingdom Effect’.
“Moonhoofer!” I try again, this time closer. “Equestria to Moonhoofer!”
Twinkle twinkle twinkle
Once again he ignores me as he uses his grey-hued magic to turn his book's page.
“... Moonhoofer… I know you can hear me… Look, I’m not even calling you Lunardanseur anymore; just like you asked!”
Twinkle twinkle twinkle
Another page turns.
“Moonhoofer…”
Flip
“... Moonhoofer…”
Flip
“... There’s no way you’re reading that quickly.”
Flip
“Super impressive if you are though.”
Flip
“That's gotta be, like, a world record or something… Or maybe just a magical academy one?”
Flip
“I like your sweater. It looks comfy.”
Flip
“And your mane is really pretty. Wish I could do something similar with my fins.”
Flip!
“You should be more careful with those pages.”
Flip!
“You might accidentally rip one out.”
Flip!
“I hear the fees in this place are cra-zy.”
Flip!!
“Like student loan crazy.”
Flip!!
“They should abolish those.”
Flip!!!
“Total scam, in my opinion.”
Flip!!!
“What’s the point in learning stuff if you’re going to spend the rest of your life paying it back, am I right?”
FLIP!!!
“... You just ran out of pages there, Moonhoof-”
“WHAT DO YOU WANT?!” Moonhoofer finally snaps, dropping his book long enough to glare at me. His outburst earns him a few “Shhhh!”-es from all of the, like, two ponies still left in the building. “Can’t you see I’m trying to be alone here, Bar-”
Smack!
Before he can finish, I noisily slap a letter on the table with all the force I can muster. This results in the stallion having no choice but to look at it.
Once he does, his rant dies on his lips.
“Special delivery from Ponyville,” I smile toothily at the now stunned pony. “Straight from the desk of Dusk Shine to your awaiting hooves. Tips are appreciated, but not necessary~”
“From… Dusk?” Moonhoofer asks me hushedly, unbelieving of my words. "He actually... wrote to me?”
Cling clank
“Considering that he wanted me to give you one of these as well," I point to the second delivery item, the one I had just tossed onto the table. "I think he plans to keep writing to you, Moonhoofer.”
“A… A-a scroll seal?!”
“Yup,” I nod, confirming his suspicions. “One that goes straight to me. I’m pretty confident that a smart pony like you can figure out how to copy it, so feel free to make yourself a whole bunch. I won’t mind, just so long as you don’t send stuff past my nine-o-clock bedtime,” a giggle escapes me. “I’m too old to be accidentally flaming the bed, thank-you-very-much.”
“...”
Moonhoofer, still in a daze, looks searchingly back and forth between the scroll seal and the letter.
“I... don’t understand,” he utters quietly, still trying to make heads or tails of what I’m saying.
My eyes roll thanks to this.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I can’t help but laugh. “Come on, dude. I’m a kid and even I can see what’s going on here.”
Jumping up onto an open chair, and then onto the table itself, I grasp the letter and seal in my claws and present them once again to the bewildered stallion.
“Dusk wants to be your pen pal,” I kindly spell it out, widening the purple eyes hidden behind the pony’s glasses. “I told him how you reacted to the news about us moving away, and he must have felt super guilty or something because the next thing I know I've got a secret letter to deliver."
“Secret?”
“Hey, you know Dusk; that pony makes me write everything for him,” I snort. “Him writing this one up by himself must mean that it's something special, and for your eyes only.”
“Only mine?” Moonhoofer parrots, as the big picture slowly becomes clearer for him. “How do you know what it says then?”
“I don’t,” I shrug, again surprising him. “Dusk could be hounding you for some bits you owe him for all I know... but I’ve got a feeling that’s not the case here.”
"W-why do you think that?”
“Because my charge now knows that Friendship is Magic,” I grin a dung-eating grin, maximizing the cheesiness as far as I can push it. “And I think we both know how much magic means to him.”
“...”
… After a hard-fought fight…
… Moonhoofer finally produces a smile.
Mission accomplished.
“Yeah,” he finally admits. “Yeah, I know. It’s what I admire the most about him.”
“Same,” I agree with him wholeheartedly. “And I’m sure that’s something he admires about you too, Moonhoofer.”
“R-really?”
Plop
“Only one way to find that out,” I reply cooly with a leap off the table, and a slow walk away. “Read his letter, the one likely filled with apologies and vows to do better, then send one back. See where it goes from there. Can't promise it'll make up for us missing your party, but if you're willing to meet Dusk halfway… Well, you might be surprised how quickly friends can bounce back from the brink.
"Friendship is work, Moony, and it’s work that both parties need to do, not just one...”
Before I reach the stairs leading downwards, I shoot the pony one last glance from over the shoulder.
“... It’s work worth doing though. Promise.”
“...”
Feeling that my meddling quota for the day has been successfully hit, I start to make my way back towards where I had left Gleaming and Prince Bolo.
“... Goodnight, Barb...” Moonhoofer calls back distantly. “... And… thank you.”
Waving a claw behind my back in goodbye, I redouble my efforts towards leaving.
…
...
… Whelp…
… That was a thing.
I hope Moonhoofer reads that letter, and that it does contain what I think it does. I highly doubt Dusk would have asked me to deliver a scroll seal to the dude if not with the plan of becoming pen pals, but I don't live inside his head. Even if that wasn’t his end goal, my advice should hopefully push Moonhoofer down that path...
…
… Truth talk?
My advice to him wasn’t completely benevolent.
A bit of it was selfish, in a way; an attempt to ease my conscience for the mistake I made when last I saw him.
As explained earlier, the night I bumped into Moonhoofer he galloped away after being told that Dusk wasn’t coming back. I felt terrible at the time… but not enough to do something about it. With my mind preoccupied with Solaris-talk thoughts, I felt that piling my already full plate with further drama would have been a tactical error. In coming to this conclusion, I ended up inadvertently shutting my heart off to somepony who was hurting, and who was crying out for help.
I also ended up doing something I deeply regret, and something I've seldomly relied on since:
I flipped a coin.
Lady Luck made the ultimate call on whether I was to make a note of the stallion’s distress, or to keep my nose out of it entirely. So overwhelmed with plans and schemes was I that I honestly believed it to be a fair decision. Solaris’ later teachings on Seerdom, the ones he ironically taught me during the very meeting I had brushed the unicorn off for, have since taught me a better philosophy; the River and the Stone.
Though I've since modified the mentality to better fit my limited foresight, the baseline ideal still applies here; just because I don’t know a pony’s involvement in how the show plays out, that doesn’t permit me to overlook them as I did with Moonhoofer.
I'm time's guardian, not its lord.
If Dusk rekindling an old friendship drastically alters the future it won't be my job to fix it. It won't be anyone's job to fix it. The River will continue to flow unhindered, and the Stone will remain where it fell.
In the end, I’m grateful that the coin landed on heads that fateful night.
If it had fallen on tails I might have forgotten all about poor Moonhoofer.
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In the dead of night, Prince Solaris sat alone within his private bedchamber.
Exhausted from the day’s many arduous tasks, the alicorn felt that he had earned a moment’s respite.
Upon his favorite cushion, and sipping his favorite tea from his favorite, relocated cup; Equestria’s crown Prince couldn’t imagine a more relaxing arrangement…
… Yet, despite his best efforts, he could not rest peacefully.
His mind was too ablaze with thoughts and worries.
Stardust Glimmer’s Index photo sat before Prince Solaris upon a small desk, where it had been thoroughly analyzed. Two books lied beside it, recently touched; both oddly blank in places, and both stained with red and blue ink respectively…
… But the tomes were not Solaris' main point of interest this evening; the photograph was.
The colt’s eyes had managed to intrigue the alicorn just as much as they had intrigued his seemingly young Squire.
“Same year,” Solaris noted silently in his head, for he was not the type of pony to speak openly with one’s self. “Wrong month though… This Stardust Glimmer character isn't connected to the Sonic Rainboom then…
“... He is nonetheless still a Stowaway, just like dear Barbara…”
The Prince took a long sip of his tea, as he continued to process what little he knew.
“He's not her entangled dance partner, that much is certain,” he hummed quietly, his eyes busy with reexamining the aged photo. “That is quite discerning… It would mean that their ranks rose to four whilst I wasn’t looking…
“... What an unprecedentedly unlucky number…
“...
“... Though I suppose there’s a sort of… poetry to be found in this unpleasantness:
“Perhaps my Final Squire shall be the one to set my First fre-”
Knock knock knock
Shaken from his musings, Solaris’ head darted towards his bedchamber’s doorway.
Twinkle twinkle pop, pop, pop
With an even quicker wave of his horn, he went on to discreetly dismiss the contents of his desk back into his pocket dimension.
“You may enter,” the Prince commanded as soon as he was ready.
Captain Gleaming Shield, ever the loyal guard, swiftly obeyed.
“You summoned me, your highne-” she began to lower herself into a bow before her sworn charge...
... only to halt midway once she got a better look at him.
"..."
"..."
"... Sigh...Yes, Gleam, I indeed shaved my beard," Solaris morosely explained himself, and pointed a hoof at his now clean chin. "There was a bit of an... incident with it," he then hissed, as he gave the birdcage in the room a rather nasty glare.
Fast asleep in his bed, Ignatius simply snored an innocent "Caw" in reply.
"I... see," Gleaming blinked, pretending to understand. Recovering from her surprise, she then resumed her formal introduction. "You summoned me, your highness?"
Twinkle twinkle twinkle
Shutting the doors behind the mare with his magic, granting himself and his guest privacy, the Prince replied with, “Indeed I have, Captain. I thank you for coming on such short notice."
“I live to serve, Prince Solaris," Gleam continued to bow.
“Hah!" Solaris snorted. "There's no need for such theatrics! It's only the two of us in here, after all."
"Understood," Gleaming didn't rise. "Do I have permission to speak freely then, your highness?”
"You know you always have it, my dear Gleamin-”
“Apologize to Barb,” the unicorn bluntly cut off the alicorn, ending the pleasantries with all the grace of a sledgehammer against glass.
“...”
… Though he was well over a millennium old, and though he had faced foes far more powerful than Gleaming Shield…
… Prince Solaris still shrank in his seat all the same.
“I… um...” he winced, feeling less like a mighty avatar of the sun and more like a little scolded colt. “W-what did I do wrong?”
“Don’t pretend like you don't know," Gleaming Shield reared on the far larger pony, causing him to shrink further into his cushion. “I set very clear rules and expectations for how to treat Barb when I agreed to be the Captain of your guard; rules that you just trampled right over!"
Prince Solaris gulped.
"We had an agreement, big guy," the mare's horn ignited threateningly, as she stepped ever closer. "You aren't allowed to hurt her, you aren't allowed to make her cry, and, most importantly of all; the rule you just broke…"
Solaris braced himself for the inevitable.
"... No, scrolls, after, nine!"
… Solaris blinked.
"It is way past baby dragon bedtime, mister," Gleaming reprimanded harshly, and flicked her target's nose with her magic. "Poor girl was fast asleep when she sneezed out your scroll! Woke her right up! Did you have to send the message through dragonfire, you big jerk?!"
“O-oh,” Solaris’ ears wilted, though internally he was relieved.
It seemed that, just as she had been trained to do, Barbara had kept the contents of their meeting a secret.
"Her Karma remains balanced," the alicorn mentally noted. "Excellent."
“You better make it up to her,” the unicorn intimidated once again with a lit horn, knocking Solaris from his thoughts. “Or else.”
“Y-yes, of course,” the guilty stallion stammered, and leaned further back from the glowing appendage. “I will make sure she is properly compensated with gems, ma’am. Were emeralds her f-favorite, or was it rubies?”
“It’s sapphires,” Gleaming growled.
“Sapphires it is then! Purest I can find, promise!”
“...”
“... Gulp…”
“...”
… Gleaming Shield’s horn ceased its glow.
“Good,” she nodded. “Then all is forgiven.”
Solaris breathed a sigh of relief.
“... Now I know you didn’t summon me past midnight just to get chewed out,” Gleaming resumed the earlier exchange, acting as if she hadn’t just casually terrorized the most powerful pony in the land. “I am at your command, your highness.”
“R-right,” the whiplashed stallion stuttered before recomposing himself. “I have something important to discuss with you, Captain Shield.”
“I’m listening.”
Solaris paused to gather his thoughts.
“... My meeting with young Barbara has yielded some… interesting insight as to how things are progressing in Ponyville,” he started slowly, building up to what he truly wanted to discuss.
“Is my brother okay?”
“Yes, and from the sound of things he’s flourishing in Ponyville just as we knew he would.”
Now it was Gleam’s turn to breathe a sigh of relief.
“There were, however, some complications,” Solaris went on to explain, causing the overprotective sister to become ridged where she stood. “One incident in particular has turned me quite introspective.”
“What happened?”
“Something that was no match for your brother’s dear friends,” the alicorn reassured the worried mare. “Still though, while the details are of no importance, the end result has forced me to reconsider something…”
Well used to Solaris’ habits, and perfectly capable of reading his tells; Gleaming Shield waited patiently for the Prince to proudly drop his bombshell.
“... Specifically, I’m reconsidering your earlier proposal, Captain Shield; the one from last month.”
Upon hearing this glorious turn of events, the unicorn had to fight hard to prevent her tail from wagging.
“You mean…?!” she failed to keep the excitement out of her voice.
“Yes, Gleam,” Solaris replied somewhat exhaustedly, as if he had just lost a bet. “I shall honor your request for more eyes in Ponyville…”
“I will do as you command, your highne-”
“... on one condition,” he then added loudly, knowing that he would need to temper the overeager pony’s ambitions. “Neither Dusk nor Barbara are to know of this! I demand that whatever form this increased guard presence takes be discreet, and stealthy. I will refuse to sign off on any deployment that involves a legion of wings, hooves, or armor.”
Gleaming winced at the stipulations.
“You’re not giving me a whole lot to work with, big guy,” she made her displeasure known.
“Yes, I’m aware,” Solaris sighed in turn. “But I feel the roadblocks are necessary, and I feel that I speak for us both when I say that I want nothing more than for Dusk to live a normal life… At least until… well…”
“Until he earns his wings,” Gleam finished the alicorn’s thought for him, though it pained her to do so. “Yeah. I… agree... Okay, your highness; how should I go about this then?” she swiftly changed topics, unwilling to grant her brother’s future princehood any further thought. “If Dusty can't know about this, I’m going to have to work with very limited deployment numbers.”
“Yes, that would make sense.”
“Everypony will have to be somewhat competent too, at least enough to report back anything suspicious.”
“Yes, now you’re on the right track!”
“The squad will have to be made up of ponies neither Dusk nor Barb recognizes either. If they realize that somepony working for the Crown just so happened to relocate to Ponyville, it could compromise the whole mission!”
“Yes and yes!”
“With all that in mind, the answer is clear to me, your highness!”
“Yes?”
“We should reactivate S.M.I.L.E.!”
“Nnope!” Solaris unintentionally taped into his inner Red Gala, and hastily vetoed Gleam’s suggestion, all at the same time. “Nnope nope nope! The royal coffers still haven't recovered from the last time we were forced to reactivate The-Division-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named!"
The Prince then shivered.
"The property damage alone was, brrrr, nightmarish...”
“Bu-”
“Captain Shield," the stallion pleaded with the mare. "Do you really, really I ask you, want to put your little brother and little dragon friend’s lives in the hooves of those… those… renegades?!”
“... No…”
“Then I suggest you look elsewhere for your stealthy soldiers,” Solaris stomped his hoof in finality.
“... Fine,” Gleam pouted in a manner the alicorn might have labeled as ‘adorable’ if he wasn’t deathly afraid of upsetting her. “You’re still leaving me with very little options, big guy.”
“I know,” Prince Solaris sighed once again. “I know… But surely there must be somepony under your command that fits the bill? Somepony fresh enough to not be recognized by their targets, and competent enough to follow their orders to the letter?”
“Hmmm… I would have to consider the rookies then,” Gleaming explained with her hoof under her chin. “The ones that enlisted in the last month, at least. Anything older and we run the risk of either Dusty or Barb having bumped into them… Month-old guards make for terrible lookouts though, your highness. They lack the skills to remain covert, and the knowledge of what to look out for; not to mention most of the fresh ones are currently… indisposed.”
“Beg pardon?”
“The Shards of Discord basically wiped them all out, sir,” Gleam reported grimly. “I can’t think of a single recruit who didn’t touch one of those Tarturus condemned things! Most got scared off after spending a day or two as a potted plant, or a giraffe, or as a tree...
“... What you’re asking for is impossible, Solaris,” Gleaming Shield finished her report, upsetting the Prince. “Just plain impossible. I would need to train somepony up from scratch, but with rumors flying all over about the castle being haunted… Well, let’s just say that recruitment’s been at an all-time low.”
“Come now, Captain Shield,” Prince Solaris insisted, not accepting the impossibility of his request. “Surely there must be somepony new who wasn’t deterred from a minor bout of chaos magic!”
“I’m afraid no-” the mare started to repeat herself…
… but then a thought suddenly crossed her mind.
What followed after the thought was a face.
And after a face… a name.
“Twinkle Scout,” Captain Shield whispered to herself, mulling over the details in her head. “Yeah… Yeah! Twinkle Scout! She might be just who we need!”
“Twinkle Scout?” Solaris blinked, his mind busy putting a face to a name. “You mean the dear who got turned into a rhino?”
“The very same,” Gleam nodded. “Out of the fresh recruits, she’s the only one who stayed on after encountering a shard.”
“Isn’t she currently… well… a rhino?”
“The doctors believe that she’ll make a full recovery in a couple of weeks, your highness,” the unicorn went on to explain. “After that, it should only take another week or so for her to recoup and receive the proper training.”
“Three to four weeks…” Solaris murmured to himself. “I suppose it can’t be helped… Are you certain she’s skilled enough for such an unusual task?”
“I believe Cadet Twinkle Scout’s work speaks for itself,” Gleaming hyped up her rookie to the best of her abilities. “Her resuming active duty after abruptly losing her ponyhood is proof enough that she’s capable of handling any oddness Ponyville throws at her. She also passed her Sentry exams practically in a Flash, so I’m confident she can get this job done and, more importantly, done discreetly.”
“... Well… If you’re certain, Captain, I will go ahead and authorize her reassignment,” Solaris relented, though inside he was still skeptical. “I’ll also go ahead and suggest that we aim to deploy her right around the tail end of Ponyville’s scheduled Winter Wrap Up.”
“Hmmm… That’s cutting it pretty close,” Gleaming thought aloud. “But I see your rationale. With her coming in just in time to help out with the demi-seasonal shift, she can pretend to be a volunteer from Cloudsdale who decided to stick around after the fact.”
“Hah!” the Prince laughed. “It seems you and Barbara share a talent for reading my mind, Gleaming Shield!”
“More like a survival instinct,” the mare muttered something dark under her breath. “I’ll prepare a training regimen for Twinkle right away, your highness,” she then raised her voice, continuing the discussion. “Was that all you required of me this evening?”
“Not quite,” Solaris revealed, managing to surprise the seasoned guard captain. “That was just the assignment that required the most hashing out, hence why I started with it. In comparison, the second task I called you for should prove significantly easier to accomplish.”
“And what’s that?”
Twinkle twinkle twinkle pop, pop
Showing rather than telling, the alicorn waved his horn and summoned both Stardust Glimmer's and Trixster’s Index photos from within his pocket dimension.
Twinkle twinkle twinkle… Pop!
Another burst of golden spellwork later and the photos spontaneously duplicated themselves into aged-up mugshots of their respective ponies.
“I’m requesting a ponyhunt for these two unicorns,” Solaris explained fully, as the two new photographs transferred from his magical aura to Gleaming’s own. “Send out as many pegasus scouts as you can muster to the far corners of Equestria. I want them brought to Canterlot.”
“What are their charges?” Gleaming assumed a more business-like tone.
Ponyhunts were not her favorite task, but it was a necessary evil for the royal guard; one she took no pleasure in carrying ou-
“They made your brother cry.”
“...”
Gleam’s modest smile suddenly twisted itself into something large and grotesque, stunning the alicorn greatly.
“Do you want me to bring them in warm, or cold, your highness~?” she asked sweetly with a tilted head, and a voice oozing with killing intent.
“W-warm!” the Prince shrieked. “Preferably warm, for pony’s sake!"
"Are you suuuurrre~? Body bags are far easier to transport, sir~"
"Mother of Starswirl," the Prince whimpered, thoroughly scared. "I-it was just a joke, Gleam! Just a joke...”
"..."
... With her point having been made, Gleaming Shield immediately dropped her act.
“Ponyhunts are never a laughing matter, Solaris,” she chided the grown pony in her normal tone. “And neither is ‘making somepony cry’ a punishable offense, even if it was Dusty... Do you have a real reason to drag these two stallions to Canterlot, or is this just another pet project of yours?”
Still rebounding from his well-earned verbal lashing, Prince Solaris cleared his throat before resuming.
“I-I assure you there is an actual need, Captain,” he started over. “I have reason to suspect that one of them may hold ill tidings towards my student, if not Equestria itself.”
“Suspicion alone isn’t enough,” the guardmare had to remind the royal stallion. “And if you’re only suspecting one of them, you don’t need both.”
“I’m well aware of the law, Gleaming Shield,” the alicorn attempted to reassure the concerned unicorn. “In fact, I believe ponyhunt might be the wrong word I'm looking for. In reality, I don’t have a desire to force the two of them into coming to Canterlot…
“... what I actually want is to invite them.”
“... Huh?” Gleaming Shield raised an eyebrow, her confusion clear. “You want me to gather my guards, and have them hunt down two ponies, just so we can… what… give them an invitation…?”
“That is exactly it, yes.”
“...”
“...”
“... You're asking my girls to be glorified delivery ponies for you?!” Gleam, at last, finally lost it. “Ask them to dust off their old maid outfits too why don’t ya?! Complete the look!”
“You're the pony with the final say on uniform changes, Captain, not me.”
“Don’t change the subject!” the mare snapped. “There better be a good flipping reason why I should disgrace my hard-working team with something so demeani-”
Leaning forward with his long neck, Solaris whispered something vital into Gleam’s ear.
“...”
“...”
“... Sooooo what are we delivering?” Gleaming Shield shamelessly flipped flopped from irate to cooperative.
Pleased with his little pony’s change in tune, Prince Solaris grinned wide.
“Your guards are to hunt down these two unicorns and grant them a single message, Captain Shield.”
“What’s the message?
At the question, the alicorn's smile turned predatorial.
“Stardust Glimmer and Trixster Lulamoon of Equestria; you are hereby cordially invited to attend-”
~At the Same Time, Underneath the Same Sky~
“... The Grand Galloping Gala?” a lone guardmare asked her partner in the silence of an empty hallway. “Really? You got stuck with that shift?”
The other guardmare bowed her head lowly, her disappointment clear in her body language.
“... Oh, sis; I’m so, sooo sorry for you,” the first guardmare tapped her helmet lovingly against her kin’s own. “That’s a really lousy short straw to pull.”
“Not just lousy, the worst!” the other guardmare, the only one present besides the first, whinnied loudly. “Ugh! I can picture it now; ‘Miss get me a drink, Miss clean up my puke, Miss turn around so I can look at your plot’! Ugggghhhh!! T-they’re going to treat me like I’m a flipping waitress, sis!”
“Well… Look on the bright side…”
“What bright side?!”
“... At least these uniforms don’t come with skirts to look up?” the first guardmare suggested shyly, fully aware that such a thing wasn’t going to make her sister any happier.
In response, the second guardsmare proceeded to slam her face directly into a nearby wall.
“H-hey knock it off!” the first pony yelped, checking her six to make sure they were still alone in the castle’s hallway. “You’re going to get in trouble!”
“Maybe mhats mor mhe mest, mis,” the second pony’s words were muffled against the marble surface. Lifting her head away from the zone of impact, she tried again to speak. “Maybe that’s for the best, sis; I can’t work the Grand Galloping Gala shift if I’ve been banished to the dungeons!”
“Come on, Petal; be real now,” the first used the second’s real name, emphasizing the importance of what she was about to say. “You know you can’t gallop away from your problems like that.”
“I can at least try, Sky!” the second too used the first’s true name to express her seriousness. “I’ve got no more vacation days and no more sick time! Getting in trouble is my only hope for survival!”
“Don’t be such a drama pony,” Sky Shimmer rolled her eyes. “Working one lousy shift isn’t going to destroy yo-”
“Do you think they’ll give me extra sick time if I step on a Shard of Discord?” Petal Blossom suddenly interrupted.
An idea had formed in her head.
An unquestionably bad idea, but an idea nonetheless.
“Don’t even joke about that!” Sky cautiously warned her sister. “You saw how badly it messed up Crow and that Twinkle Scout newbie, right?!”
“Well… yeah,” the younger mare reluctantly admitted. “... But not all the changes are that bad! Sometimes the shard just turns you moody!”
“Petal…”
“Maybe the opposite personality version of myself would enjoy working the Gala too!” Petal kept ranting. “You ever thought of that, Sky? Huh?!"
"Petal, no."
"But sis-"
“For the love of Solaris, Petal!” Sky Shimmer abruptly shouted, her concern for her sister clear in her voice. “Are you seriously so much of a foal that you’re willing to risk getting turned into an actual one, just to get out of work?!”
“Sky-
“I change enough real babies back home as-is, sis!” the older sibling pushed her hornless forehead against Petal’s own. “If you end up getting added to the nursery, I will personally make sure you get a nappy rash that lasts just as long as the shard does; understood?!”
“I-”
“UNDERSTOOD?!”
“Okay okay!” the younger sister wilted before her superior officer. “Okay! I promise I won’t look for one of those stupid shards, gosh!”
“Thank you, Petal,” Sky nodded happily for the return of Petal Blossom's senses. “And, hey, I’ll make sure to hook you up with something nice for after that horrible shift of yours is done. Give you something to look forward to, you know?”
“Hah!” the scolded mare shook her head. “Even if you searched every day of the two and half months in between now and then, I seriously doubt you’ll be able to find something nice enough to make the, brrr, Grand Galloping Gala somewhat bearable for me, sis.”
“What if I said it'll be less of a something,” the older sister teased the younger, as she started to trot noticeably faster down the long hallway. “And more of a some… pony~?”
“... No way,” Petal Blossom gasped, connecting the dots. “Did you score those Count Coloratura tickets I asked for?! I-I thought they were all sold out!”
“Guess you’ll have to ‘survive’ the Gala to find out, sis~”
“Sky? Sky, get back here!”
With one last shout to get her sister’s attention, Petal quickly picked up her pace and gave chase after her now distant sibling…
…
…
…
… From the shadows, cyan eyes opened wide.
From the shadows, a cloak unicorn stepped forth into the moonlight-lit hallways.
From the shadows, the stranger stared outwards towards the now gone mares.
“...”
… And back into the shadows he wen-
“Fzzz… c-crackle crackle… fzzz… G… G…?”
Static, foreign to the land of Equestria, suddenly rang out loudly from within the unicorn’s ear.
His partner was trying to contact him.
“Fffffzzzz… cracklecracklcrack- G-... G-Glare? Can you read me? Please…. Ffzzz… -tupid hunk of scrap… Glare? Can you hear me now? Please report in.”
“... Bleh.”
With a tired sigh, Sunset Blaze lifted his hoof towards the earpiece hidden underneath his cloak, and gently tapped the button.
“What do you want, Dus-”
“Use the codenames, Glare.”
Solaris’ fallen student growled into the mechanical contraption’s receiver.
“For the last time, Four-Eyes,” the light amber-coated stallion, thoroughly exhausted from his day of sneaking around, uttered his partner’s codename out of spite. “Equestria doesn’t have a way to wiretap these calls, and even if it did only my name would mean anything to anypony.”
“Snrk,” Sunset’s distant partner in crime snorted into the microphone, much to the recipent’s discomfort. “Anypony… That gets dumber every time I hear it.”
“Yeah yeah, keep making fun of my culture,” the now irate unicorn fumed. “The next time you want to eat a burger, I’ll be sure to remind you where it came from.”
“From a cow,” Four-Eyes mocked the pony from a safe distance. “A tasty tasty cow who had no family, and no friends… What’s your point, Glare?”
“... Did you just call to mock me, nerd, or do you have an actual point?”
“Oh, right,” the figure on the other side of the line abruptly cleaned up his act; becoming serious. “Your time window is almost up. Did you or did you not locate the target yet?”
“I located it just fine, Four-Eyes,” Sunset reported cockily. “My old teacher stored the Elements in the southernmost tower. He’s got a trick for how to open it up, but given time I’m sure I can replicate it.”
“Have you also mapped out an infiltration route?”
“Yup,” the stallion replied, before rolling his eyes. “And stop acting like this is some time-sensitive issue, dude. The portal between worlds isn’t going to suddenly shut off on me.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Oh, I don't know, maybe because it’s been open twenty-four-seven for the past month?” Sunset again rolled his eyes, uncaring that there wasn’t anypon-, er, one around to see him do so. “I checked the mirror thoroughly with my magic, Four-Eyes. I'm not sure what’s fueling it, but I can tell that it isn’t stopping anytime soon.”
“... Is it so wrong to be cautious, Glare?”
“It is when it gets on my nerves,” the young teen spat to himself. Now trotting at a hastened pace, he began to head towards his original entry point. “I’m still going to head back though; not because you told me to, but because I’ve gotten all I need for today.”
“Riiiiggghhht,” Four-Eyes rolled his own, completely unconvinced. “What’s our next step then?”
“I’m going to have to cross over several more times before we’re ready for the heist,” he explained authoritatively to his partner. “Gotta make sure the guard rotation is consistent, and that I've got the unlocking spell memorized. Also need to verify whether the Elements get moved around or not; could prove troublesome if they do.”
“What should I do in the meantime?”
“Heh. Oh you’ll love this, nerd; I’ve got some homework for you.”
“Homework?” Four-Eyes attempted, and failed, to hide the joy from entering his voice. “I-I mean, ahem… What sort of homework, Glare?”
“I’m giving you two and a half months to either make, buy, or steal a 3D printer,” Sunset Blaze commanded through the earbuds. “It’s going to need to be big enough to fabricate an alicorn horn. My next few dives will be spent trying to get the measurements we’ll need to copy the darn thing.”
“... I’m… going to pretend that makes some semblance of sense… What’s with the arbitrary time limit though? What happens in twelve weeks?”
At this question, as he entered inside the old storage room that housed his ticket back to the land of technology and thumbs, the stallion simply smirked.
“Why, the Gala, little Dusk Shine,” were Sunset’s final cryptic words before he disappeared once again off the face of the planet. “The highly anticipated, highly distracting, and highly crashable Grand, Galloping, Gala."
Light poured out from underneath the storage room’s doorway as its sole, unpetrified inhabitant vanished without a trace.
“... Tsk.”
An unfathomable distance away, a lanky teenager groaned angrily from behind his bright computer screen.
“Why does no one appreciate a good codename anymore?” he asked the darkness of his laboratory.
The darkness offered nothing in return but the faint sound of fans dispersing heat, of summer bugs croaking loudly…
… and of a small puppy snoring softly in her bed.
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I see what you did there. Will we be seeing a more realistic love interest for Dusk?
Sunset is working with the human Dusk in this universe to steal the Elements? Guess we'll be seeing Equestria Guys sooner rather than later.
Also, guess the Honesty Taser will be getting some use on a would-be thief.
She also passed her Sentry exams practically in a Flash
I'm thinking I know who Twinkle Scout's alternate is.
And why is Dusk helping Sunset to steal the elements?
10866670
Only noticed it with the hint from that sentence, then recognized that Twinkle and Flash are synonyms and a Scouts and a Sentry have similar duties in the military.
Oh great. Flash Sentry and EQG. The most beloved storylines in MLP.
Sunset is fine, up until you go back to earth with that storyline. Then, it's... humans. Basically like Anthro stories. Eugh.
When you already have multiple reincarnated humans in your story, throwing in an earth kinda saps a lot of the intrigue and mystery surrounding them. Now instead of aliens from another world, hiding their past and their knowledge, they're... stowaways, as Solaris put it.
And then there's Flash Sentry. The forced relationship forever turned me off to any merits that shipping has. I'm fine with literally any other character. So I guess you can consider the frustration I have for that particular plot-point to be shipping nonsense, but I'm still frustrated.
I'm sorry, but these two reveals are like the opposite of hype for me.
Then throw in the fact that the Elusive plotline hasn't even been resolved yet. Something as major as that should have been revealed, like, instantly. Two people who were married don't just pretend the other doesn't exist anymore, right? Right?
The funny part is the magic element won’t reject Sunset, even if every other element does, meaning, he’ll be stealing the exact same amount of elements.
Maybe.
Well, that was interesting, Solaris is already planning to make Dusk into a alicorn and his sister know about it and is not against it.
Also, reading this, somehow it made me think... How different is going to be Equestria Boys?
Esto se pone bueno
Just because operatives cant be reactivated into a centralised working organisation, that retired members still active cant take up retirement in a quiet back of nowhere village.
And then get freinds and family in.
10866899
I always knew including EQG would be a controversial pick, but I planted the seeds for it anyways; Sunset and Twinkle Scout were mentioned in volume one of The Poisoned Barb, Barbara recalled giving Ashley the Sunset Shimmer toy that released well before EQG was announced, and the shot of the portal opening back up during Ticket Master... It's a controversial pick, but it's not like there wasn't fair warning
I wanted to flesh out Sunset's backstory through the eyes of another, just like I did with Spike, but I knew doing so would mean I would have to do it with warts and all. There was no avoiding getting a female Flash Sentry involved, so I thought I might as well play with it. Give Barb a really complicated Seer conundrum to work with, you know?
As for Elusive, I've been making sure to keep mentioning him in every single Entry since Ticket Master. For someone who lives so exclusively in her head, Barbara has been very tight-lipped about her thoughts concerning her potential lost love. The reason for that will be covered in its entirety in the Act One Finale, Storm of the Century, so I don't want to go over it in too much detail here...
... but I will take a moment to give the real-world reason behind the decision; I wasn't confident enough in my storytelling abilities to tackle the issue right away. I had set up the building blocks towards the reveal early on, saying that Jason was a seamster who had a personality similar to Rarity, so I knew I couldn't leave their first interaction without it somehow setting up this storyline... But then I was forced into a multi-year hiatus, and in that time the story's outline evolved from an episode a week format to something truly massive. The goal to have the final hashing out take place during Storm of the Century remained the same, but slowly working towards it made me anxious as each episode started to become projects onto themselves. Just like what happened here with Rainbow Dash, my mental fretting turned the hornet's nest too large, and too intimidating, to kick.
Elusive isn't exactly Jason; or, at least not the person Barbara remembers.
His situation is complicated, and I'm almost done laying down all the hints necessary for the reveal, but that doesn't excuse how long this took. I think I'm almost ready though, both in-story and out-story, for how this upcoming Episode will change the tone of The Poisoned Barb's Tale going forward.
As always, thank you and everyone else for your patience, and I hope these swerves didn't hamper your's, or anyone else's, enjoyment of the strange world I've been painting.
-Derply
10866980
"It is my birthright! My Glorious Purpose!"
Click
Bzzzzzzz
"M-m-my G-G-glorious P-p-pupose, d-damn it!"
Romance Subplot AHOY!!!
I am afraid. Sunset and Starlight? As if one isn't normally enough of a pain for any non sociopathic non-villain. And our favorite stony hearted time bomb/sleeper agent as well! Oh, the humanity!
How do you plan on planning this so that you wouldn't either destroy the hype of the concept or poor Barbara's spirit?!
10867210
I don't have a problem with Sunset. In fact, I think her storyline has a lot of potential, and could be a good addition to many stories. What I have do a problem with is EQG and Earth.
That's understandable, but at the same time, I think I would have preferred the storyline being partially mishandled immediately over delaying it long enough to develop your skills to do it right. But I only started reading recently, so I hardly have any reason to have a say in the matter. It's just that, with that thread still hanging, introducing EQG Earth seems like putting water on a grease fire. Unlike Sunset's inclusion, I really hate Earth inclusions in HiEs. It just drastically changes so much of the story, like how Barb went from being something special akin to a phoenix, to being an interdimensional stowaway. That's quite the downgrade. Throw in terrible designs that make Anthro look good and you got something that I just can't be excited about, and in fact dread the inclusion of.
Huh.
*~ Well, that pair of cyan eyes belonged to Sunset Blaze
When I expected Queen Chrysalis
But they were actually the eyes of Sunset Blaze
Art is a lie
NOTHING IS REAL ~*
Seamstress?
10867925
Actually, the word I was looking for was seamster
Derp be derpin'
10867773
I already allowed a season two villain, a season five villain, and three movie villains to skip the line and show up in season one! There are no more vacancies! Chryssy is just going to have to wait until season two and that's final!
"... Three movie villains?"
Yes. That is exactly what I said.
"... Sunset... SciTwi... Whose the third?"
...
"... Derply... Whose the third?"
...
"..."
... Flash Sentry.
"Ah. That makes sense."
Phew~
Just finished reading the last two episodes. So much stuff happened! Artemis is on the way to improvement like the Luna of your main equestria won't see - if he isn't condemned to die the death of a mortal pony. If he doesn't recover o don't think there'll be ANY kindness from Solaris towards Barb or Gala. At all.
Gotta say I realized it was Flash Sentry only in that paragraph, but at least was at the start of it!
Oh Barb, these two chapters made me realize how much your dragon greed is screwing you up. If you weren't that fixated on trading up your Hoard of Secrets you'd have told everything already and just be living your life of a child that's very, very smart. Solaris might be an ass, but he's not evil... At least we have no reason to believe so yet.
Bacon Horse is best horse, but I dunno how I feel about bacon boy.
I still believe Rainbow should hitch it with one of the girls. I'd say Barb, but that's at least decade in the future yet, to our dismay.
A pair, you say? Seers coming in doubles is interesting.
My pet theory? Starswirl is Ashley. The reunion will be just as awkward as that sounds
10867210
Twenty years is quite enough to grow up in a new life, getting over your last one. I severely doubt their encounter will end in anything but tears and a very broken heart
10871863
Love the healthy speculation! It's what I live for, and it greatly refuels me when my motivation empties out
Definitely some good observations here! "Barbara's draconic greed is screwing her out of sharing her burden with another" is something I've been subtly pushing for a while now; but while Artemis may have shined a spotlight on this issue for the audience, Barb herself has only been semi-conscious of it so far. Expect it to become a lot more prevalent as we draw closer to the inevitable talk with Elusive later this year... (crossing all of my fingers) hopefully
and I caught up
hmm... I'm not sure how I feel about EQG being a thing in the story but I am curious to see where this road leads. And the implications.
Mostly I'm curious to see Barbs reaction at being confronted by the existence of a freaky 'not-earth' populated by neon colored 'human' versions of the ponies. must seem like a giant cosmic middle finger to someone in her shoes. And that's not even mentioning the dog. I mean damn. Lovecraft characters have gone insane for less.
10883271
For all the dumb that came with Equestria Girls, you can't deny that the context of it is interesting to explore in the greater scope of the Equestrian Universe. Cosmic horror is really about the best way to describe it when you start really digging deeper into what little depth is there, hence why I couldn't resist adding it in. Definitely going to be exploring it in detail once we make it there during The Best Night Ever.
Plus, I'm a firm believer that it was perhaps the best Twilight/Spike solo outing the series ever provided. It really showed the sister and brother bond the two shared with one another seasons before they officially became as such...
... which means there was no way in hell I wasn't going to have it in here
10884161
I wonder if getting turned into a dog will be the metaphorical kick up the but needed for her to finally address the whole 'legally property' thing with Dusk. Hard to ignore the universe itself seemingly telling you that it thinks you're a pet.
10884967
Hmmmm... Maayybbe, sooorttta... 100% correct ;)
Me pregunto si barbara alguna vez va a crecer por codicia y si es así lo logrará controlar?
10986306
Probablemente ella lo controlará tan bien como Spike "controló" el suyo.
Aunque, tenga la seguridad de que tengo algunos giros divertidos planeados para ello.
10987207
Gracias por responderme espero con ansias los siguientes episodios 😁
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
What happened to part 1 of entry 10?
11007850
Have no fear, it's still being worked on ^_^
I'm currently taking a break from writing atm in order to work on my long-neglected mental health. I'm also hoping to make some breakthroughs and press onwards... (crosses fingers)... later this year. Gen five REALLY revitalized my love of Da' Pony, thus I didn't feel the need to put up the Hiatus Tag just yet; that's all.
I thank you all in advance for your patience
-Derply
So I got up through partway through Entry 7 and at that point I just had to make a choice. I had to stop.
Your writing is excellent, there's no doubts there, but all the same I just kept feeling sorry for poor Barb, who is stuck having to go through slightly altered events, being unable to do anything about it, and at the same time seeming to be the world's punching bag, unable to acquire much in terms of victories.
I didn't realize until writing this but... I couldn't stand her constantly being ignored and knocked about, it just... hit too close to home in a way. I guess that's partly it, I see some of Barb in myself. I just can't help but constantly feel sorry for her, and that extends to my desire to read through this.
I'm sorry I couldn't manage to keep interest.
11028613
You have nothing to be sorry about. The last thing I want is for readers to have to force themselves to read through something that isn't entertaining them. If Barb's struggle hits too close to home then it hits too close to home; no point in reading escapist fantasy if it isn't actually transporting you somewhere new
I thank you kindly for sticking with it as long as you did though, and I hope to see you again someday if I ever decide to write a new story
-Derply
Had random thought, but what if Solaris was the one who shocked Barb, he already seems to know what she's hiding and making it look like the elements of harmony are calling her out would be a powerful forced persuasion.